sahib in Monrovia city to discuss it.
As a resident of Liberia for the last 15 years, I can say
Sachdeva is a successful businessman and a fine honorary
consul general of India in Liberia.
Despite his high profile, Sachdeva is still a simple man,
and is always keen to help the needy. I remember how
when an Indian employee of an Indian store was lying sick
at JFK Hospital in Monrovia, Sachdeva made an appeal
that brought 200 Indians to donate the blood the boy needed but which was not available in the hospital. This shows
how popular Sachdeva is in Liberia.
Gill, a former honorary consul general himself, picked
Sachdeva to replace him. Now, how can he find fault with
his own choice?
Chander Mohan
by e-mail
III
I came to Liberia in 1983 and know Sachdeva as a kind
and professional person, even a messiah for the Indian
community in Liberia.
He is the only Indian who will go out of his way to help
his fellow Indians living in Liberia. Whoever the person is,
however big or small his problem may be, Sachdeva is
always there to help.
The first person who comes to my mind when I need
advice or help is Sachdeva.
I have been working for an airline for almost 20 years and
have seen all the wars in Liberia. I can never forget the help
Sachdeva provided to his fellow Indians. During the war in
2003 in Liberia, he chartered a flight to evacuate Indians
to Freetown, which was safer than Monrovia. He paid for
this from his pocket. He did all he could to help others.
I assert that all the allegations against Sacheva are baseless.
R Bhalla
by e-mail
IV
Please accept my deepest gratitude for the professional
manner in which you have handled the letters from Gill
and Gopal Pandey (February11).
You have given equal time and space to dissenting views,
and allowed the parties to both exorcise
hate-mongers and defend good people.
The views from the Indian community
in Liberia, debunk the questionable
claims of G S Gill, who was supported by
Pandey in an infamous letter against
Sachdeva, the current Indian consul general in Liberia.
By allowing others to dissent and thus
challenge Gill and Pandev to prove the
veracity of their claims or admit malice,
your paper has greatly improved my perception of your institution’s adherence to
professional standards, particularly
regarding fairness and balance.
By this singular action, the likes of Gill
and Pandey will think twice before trying
to deceive reputable entities like India
Abroad into doing their hatchet job. The
next time any disgruntled person(s) imagines, even for a moment, that the pages of
India Abroad are available for abuse, they
would reflect on the drubbing Gill and his
collaborator, Pandey, have suffered for
their indiscretions.
Let me reiterate the immense respect I
have for your paper as I close by saluting
you once again for your judicious handling of this matter and for not sanctioning recklessness.
Conversions are no solution
This is in response to the letter by Bikshapati Adepa
(February 4) saying that conversions are a good way to
escape discrimination. I was a bit shocked that the edi-
tors let this kind of letter, though I commend them for
promoting free thought. If I were to opine that Muslim
women who wear the burkha and are discriminated
against should convert to some other religion, I highly
doubt that it would be published.
This letter is a response to Adepa. Discrimination in
religion is not confined to Hinduism alone. I challenge
Adepa: Let us see if we can apply his solution to other
religions also.
The United States became home to many people fleeing religious persecution. Should they have converted to
some other faith? Native Americans and African
Americans have been heavily discriminated against in
this country. So, does Adepa’s solution work for them as
well? Non-Mormons living in Utah have complained of
discrimination by Mormons. Should they have converted to some other faith?
Ahmadiyyas, Bohra Muslims have been abused and
labeled as non-Muslims by the majority group. Is conversion the answer?
This is like throwing the baby along with the bath
water.
There are bad points in Hinduism, but there good
points as well. How about it being the only major faith
to pray to a female form of god? Images like the
Ardhanariswara clearly send a message that men and
women are equals. I dare say that if the Buddha had
been born elsewhere he would have been branded a
heretic and tortured to death. There would be no
Buddhism today. Or, for that matter, Sikhism, Jainism,
Zoarastrianism or Bohra Islam.
The effects are evident even today. Name one non-Christian leader in the West. Name one non-Muslim
leader in the Middle East. Go to Hindu India and you
will find numerous non-Hindu leaders. In recorded history, no other country has ever had a person lead the
country who was not of the majority faith. Only India
bears that proud distinction.
Vanamali Thotapalli
Chicago
PUNIT PARANJPE/ REU TERS
Nyekeh Forkpa
Providence, Rhode Island
A bride at a Dawoodi Bohra mass-marriage ceremony in Mumbai, September 6, 2004
LETTERS
RICHARD CARSON/ REU TERS
A protest calling for British Petroleum to clean up the Gulf of Mexico
oil spill, during a protest outside BP’s corporate headquarters in
Houston, May 24, 2010
BP may not be right for India
I read with interest your article titled ‘Reliance, BP seal
the deal’ (India Abroad; March 4). The media blitz over
this deal is amazing, but, surprisingly, not even one person
raised the issue of BP’s safety record.
This, especially in the context of the BP oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico.
The spill, which flowed for three months before it was
stopped, was the largest accidental marine oil spill in the
history of the petroleum industry. The explosion killed 11
and injured 17 men. According to ABC News, BP has one
of the worst safety track records of any major oil company
operating in the United States.
BP’s safety violations far outstrip its fellow oil companies. According to the Center for Public Integrity, in the
last three years, BP refineries in Ohio and Texas have
accounted for 97 percent of the ‘egregious, willful’ violations pointed out by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration.
I hope the appropriate authorities look into the
Reliance-BP deal as thoroughly as possible to avoid a similar calamity.
Pradeep Srivastava
Detroit
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